Who Was St. Valentine?

Saint Valentine receives a rosary from the Virgin, by David Teniers III

The
most appropriate response to this question might be to ask which
St.
Valentine one has in mind. It is somewhat unclear exactly which
Christian saint is being commemorated on Valentine's Day, a holiday
that has become increasingly secular over time. Two early Christian
martyrs named Valentine are thought to have died on February 14th,
yet many other martyrs from this time period shared this name. One
reasonable explanation is that several legends surrounding saints
with this name have come to be celebrated collectively on the day we
now know as Valentine's Day (Schmidt 210).

Contemporary
accounts suggest that Valentine was a priest who lived during the
reign of the "cruel" Roman Emperor Claudius II (A.D. 210 -
A.D. 270). According to legend, Valentine, going against the wishes
of the emperor, helped arrange
marriages for soldiers. This St. Valentine was subsequently
sentenced to death and executed as a result of his actions.

Another
story tells of a judge
who converted to Christianity after Valentine restored his blind
daughter's sight. When Valentine tried to convert Claudius to
Christianity, a religion the emperor was determined to suppress,
Valentine was put to death. A similar story places Valentine in
prison in Rome and describes him as receiving many letters
from Roman children. Among them was the jailor's blind daughter,
whom he also cured.

It
is possible that the association of Valentine's Day with love is
rooted in a tradition dating back to pagan Rome. For many years,
Romans had held celebrations in honor of the goddess Juno in
anticipation of the Feast
of Lupercalia, an annual festival honoring the gods of fertility.
This feast eventually came to include a tradition that involved young
men being paired for a year with a woman whose name they drew out of
an urn. There is evidence that many centuries later a similar
practice had become common in eighteenth century England (211). In
both instances, it was thought that the men and women who were paired
together might eventually marry. Whatever the influence of these
celebrations on our modern tradition, by A.D. 498 it had become
associated with Christianity when Pope
Gelasius gave the day official recognition.

The
tradition of sending Valentine's Day cards is likely rooted in
another legend attributed to the saint who supposedly sent a letter
to the jailor's daughter. It was signed, "From
Your Valentine." The first known Valentine's Day card was
sent around six hundred years ago by Charles,
Duke of Orleans, who wrote to his wife while in the Tower of
London. Although the average card purchased at Hallmark might not
have such a story attached to it, receiving one still brings people
joy centuries later.

The
association of St. Valentine with romantic love can in many ways be
traced to the poetry of medieval writers, the most notable among them
being Geoffrey Chaucer. In his poem "The Parliament of Fowles,"
it is on St. Valentine's Day that the birds choose their mate before
the arrival of Spring. Chaucer possibly chose to set his poem on this
day in order to commemorate another St. Valentine from Genoa whose
feast day fell in May (210). The association of gift-giving with
Valentine's Day has been attributed to the court culture of
seventeenth and eighteenth century Europe, and this association was
only strengthened as the Industrial Revolution transformed society
and allowed American and Europeans easier access to commercial goods
(212).

Because
so little is known with certainty about the life of St. Valentine and
it is difficult to be sure which Valentine is being referenced in
many legends, the Catholic Church removed him from the General Roman
Calendar following Vatican II in 1969. Although Valentine's Day is no
longer celebrated as an exclusively religious holiday, recalling the
story of the individual or individuals who inspired this holiday
reminds us of its long and rich history.

"About
St. Valentine." St.
Valentine's Day.
Society for the Confluence of Festivals in India. Accessed January
26, 2016.

"History
of St. Valentine's Day." St.
Valentine's Day.
Society for the Confluence of Festivals in India. Accessed January
26, 2016.

"Legends
of St. Valentine's Day." St.
Valentine's Day.
Society for the Confluence of Festivals in India. Accessed January
26, 2016.